Ben Affleck Movies: The Sum of All Fears (2002)

Our favorite BA is back, and I don’t mean BA Baracus from The A-Team. This time he plays the role he was born for – CIA operative Jack Ryan! Rumors that Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford had previously played Jack Ryan are just that – rumors, and I shall thank you for not bringing up such nonsense ever again.

As you can see, after our last episode Jack Ryan came upon the fountain of youth, and started aging backwards! In fact, the elixir that he drank was so powerful, that it actually reversed his work experience as well, so when our movie The Sum of All Fears begins, he is just a wet-behind-the-ears rookie at CIA headquarters. But he’s not just Jack Ryan, he’s Ben Affleck… and thank God for that because the evil Nazis are back and they’re ready to start some shit.

Helping out Mr. Affleck is President Fowler, played by James Cromwell, who used to take care of a talking pig. And then afterwards he invented warp drive, or something. But at some point in his illustrious career he was president – trust me on this.

After making footsie with his girlfriend, BA goes to work with DCI William Cabot, played by Morgan Freeman. Morgan Freeman is good at playing the experienced mentor to some naive rookie. How weird that he actually plays the mentor in the movie and Ben A actually plays the rookie!

Playing the bad guy this time around is Russian president Nemerov, played by Irish actor Ciarán Hinds. Irish, Russian.. what’s the difference, really? Except that this Russian is the red herring. It’s these rich neo-Nazi dudes who are trying to use him to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest. (If you don’t know what country that is, I shall say Nee! to you in perpetuity.)

First, the Nazis need a nuke, and happen to find one in Syria. And yes, the scavengers below are actually disappointed that the bomb they found didn’t go off. Don’t worry though – it goes off later. But it happens in Baltimore and I don’t think anybody important lives there, so don’t worry about this too much.

Anyway, some other stuff happens that usually happens in Tom Clancy novels… Ben helps to avert total nuclear annihilation, and the bad guys are later dispatched Mafia-style.

Finally, Ben and his girlfriend share good times near the White House lawn, reminiscing about how Kevin Smith is a funny guy, and how J-Lo is a really good friend still. But only a friend. Really, honey, don’t worry about her.